Need help sexing!

[Parissf1]

Hello again!

So I’ve been looking at responses on other threads on this forum about sexing chicks and there were more than a few mentions of “reds in EE indicating a likelihood of it being a cockerel.” That kicked my paranoia into overdrive because my EE is developing some redness on her chest, shoulders, and wings. She’s younger than the previous chicks I posted so it may be still too early to tell. Here’s some pics, what do you guys think?

Meredith Grey, Easter Egger, 3 weeks 2 days old:

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

The OE is 100% a cockerel, as others have stated. Time will tell with Blondie and the gold and black one. The blonde EE is looking like a pullet. That's not the red you want to be looking for. A telltale sign of a cockerel is dark red coming in on the shoulders, which won't be visible for another few weeks anyway.

 

[IvyBeans]

Hello again!

So I’ve been looking at responses on other threads on this forum about sexing chicks and there were more than a few mentions of “reds in EE indicating a likelihood of it being a cockerel.” That kicked my paranoia into overdrive because my EE is developing some redness on her chest, shoulders, and wings. She’s younger than the previous chicks I posted so it may be still too early to tell. Here’s some pics, what do you guys think?

Meredith Grey, Easter Egger, 3 weeks 2 days old:View attachment 3846949View attachment 3846951View attachment 3846952View attachment 3846954View attachment 3846955View attachment 3846956View attachment 3846957

If I’m honest, that’s how my surprise cockeral started at 3 weeks. However, I also read that in black and white ones, it’s white that starts on the shoulder, and that happened to me this year, but she ended up evening out her pattern by 5 weeks.

So it could go either way. That is awfully wide of a comb for 3 weeks, so I would be suspicious, too. But all hope isn’t lost.

 

[NatJ]

So I’ve been looking at responses on other threads on this forum about sexing chicks and there were more than a few mentions of “reds in EE indicating a likelihood of it being a cockerel.” That kicked my paranoia into overdrive because my EE is developing some redness on her chest, shoulders, and wings. She’s younger than the previous chicks I posted so it may be still too early to tell. Here’s some pics, what do you guys think?

Bright red, or dark red, in the shoulder/wing area are common in males.

Brown, tan, gold, and even red are common in the breasts of females.

Either gender can have any of those shades in the neck feathers and in the long flight feathers of the wings.

Examples of how males vs. females show red color:

https://www.hoovershatchery.com/Americana.html
Hoover Hatchery's "Americana" page (Easter Eggers) has a photo of a male and a female. The male has dark red in his shoulder/wing area. The female has some light browns in the flight feathers of her wings, but not the darker red in the shoulder area.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/product/golden-comet/
Cackle Hatchery's "Golden Comet" sexlinks has a picture of a male with large amounts of dark red in his shoulder & wing area, but most of the rest of him is white.
https://www.idealpoultry.com/product/1327/2#
Ideal Poultry's "Golden Star" sexlinks have both a male and a female pictured. The male has dark red in his shoulder & wings, much less than the one from Cackle but still visibly present.
Those two males are good examples of how much or how little red might be present in the shoulders of Easter Egger males.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/black_star.html
For the "Black Star" sexlinks on McMurray Hatchery's website, every bird pictured there is a female (at least on the day I'm posting this.) All of the areas they have red, you can easily find red/brown/gold in female Easter Eggers too.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/phoenix.html
McMurray Hatchery's "Silver Phoenix" page has some females with a coloring that is fairly common in female Easter Eggers. The female breast color is a brown-ish shade usually called "salmon." In that variety of Phoenix, the males have black breasts. If you find an Easter Egger colored like that, with the black breast, you definitely have a male (but that part doesn't help with some of the other colors of Easter Egger males.)

Meredith Grey, Easter Egger, 3 weeks 2 days old:

I can't be positive at this young age, but I think this chick has a good chance of being female.

 

[Parissf1]

Bright red, or dark red, in the shoulder/wing area are common in males.

Brown, tan, gold, and even red are common in the breasts of females.

Either gender can have any of those shades in the neck feathers and in the long flight feathers of the wings.

Examples of how males vs. females show red color:

https://www.hoovershatchery.com/Americana.html
Hoover Hatchery's "Americana" page (Easter Eggers) has a photo of a male and a female. The male has dark red in his shoulder/wing area. The female has some light browns in the flight feathers of her wings, but not the darker red in the shoulder area.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/product/golden-comet/
Cackle Hatchery's "Golden Comet" sexlinks has a picture of a male with large amounts of dark red in his shoulder & wing area, but most of the rest of him is white.
https://www.idealpoultry.com/product/1327/2#
Ideal Poultry's "Golden Star" sexlinks have both a male and a female pictured. The male has dark red in his shoulder & wings of the male, much less than the one from Cackle but still visible present.
Those two males are good examples of how much or how little red might be present in the shoulders of Easter Egger males.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/black_star.html
For the "Black Star" sexlinks on McMurray Hatchery's website, every bird pictured there is a female (at least on the day I'm posting this.) All of the areas they have red, you can easily find red/brown/gold in female Easter Eggers too.

https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/phoenix.html
McMurray Hatchery's "Silver Phoenix" page has some females with a coloring that is fairly common in female Easter Eggers. The female breast color is a brown-ish shade usually called "salmon." In that variety of Phoenix, the males have black breasts. If you find an Easter Egger colored like that, with the black breast, you definitely have a male (but that part doesn't help with some of the other colors of Easter Egger males.)



I can't be positive at this young age, but I think this chick has a good chance of being female.

Thank you everybody for your responses, and shoutout to @NatJ for taking the time to include so many examples. There are so many subtleties to this whole chicken thing, so I truly appreciate all the information and visual references.

 

[Parissf1]

Not a question; just an update on Olive Oyl Uncle Fester.

5 week 2 days old. His wattles got bigger and flops around now. Arranged for someone to come pick him up and take him to his new home. While we were waiting outside, he kept calling out to his flock. It was kinda sad to watch. And then he crowed for the first time! It was squeaky and cute, like a dog’s toy. 15 minutes later when the guy got to my house to pick him up, he had crowed a total of 4 times. Goodbye, Uncle Fester!

- lol, just found out I can’t post videos so I can’t show you his cute squeak here’s some pics I took while waiting for the guy to show up.

Happy Friday, everyone!

 

[NatJ]

Not a question; just an update on Olive Oyl Uncle Fester.

5 week 2 days old. His wattles got bigger and flops around now. Arranged for someone to come pick him up and take him to his new home. While we were waiting outside, he kept calling out to his flock. It was kinda sad to watch. And then he crowed for the first time! It was squeaky and cute, like a dog’s toy. 15 minutes later when the guy got to my house to pick him up, he had crowed a total of 4 times. Goodbye, Uncle Fester!

Thanks for updating!

- lol, just found out I can’t post videos so I can’t show you his cute squeak here’s some pics I took while waiting for the guy to show up.

Videos have to be posted somewhere else (like youtube) and then you can put a link in your post to the video.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

The two in the first post are both males.

The 3rd is a female.

The EE is a female.

The olive egger is sooo cute!!!!